Floating feeling

Out on the streets, that’s where we’ll meet

By Captain Commanokers

NoC Transportation Czar

Once the dust settles from all of the current downtown construction, you may wonder what changes are in store. Perhaps there will be motorized moving sidewalks, or a museum on the CentrePointe block detailing the lifelong struggles of the Webb brothers?

I can’t confirm either of those projects at this moment, but at least one of the changes sounds epic and mystical – floating bike lanes. This is the future! Bikes will enter a special anti-gravity sector where they will levitate over downtown streets, ridding motorists of those pesky cyclists once and for all!

Well, not quite – everyone still needs to cheerfully share the road. In reality, there will be just a slight adjustment to how they share it on Vine Street from South Broadway to South Limestone. According to LFUCG Bikeway/Pedestrian Coordinator Kenzie Gleason, the changes will take place by the week of September 19.

The city has spelled it out in detail at www.floatingbikelane.com. The issue is this: When there is street parking during some parts of the day and not others, what do you do with the bike lane? The city believes that the floating bike lane is the logical answer.

Floating Lane at peak hours. Photo courtesy LFUCG.

During weekday morning and afternoon peak traffic hours (6:00 to 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.), an extra traffic lane is available for motorists and no parking is allowed. During this time, the bike lane is next to the curb.

During off-peak traffic hours (all weekday times except rush hour and on weekends), parking is permitted at the curb. During these times, the bike lane shifts to the left of on-street parking.

Floating Lane at off-peak hours. Photo courtesy LFUCG.

“We hope that it’s pretty intuitive,” said Gleason. “Cities have been doing peak parking and off-peak parking for decades – it’s in Cincinnati, it’s in Louisville. All we are doing is taking it one step further and saying, ‘OK, we’re having peak parking and off-peak parking, but we’re also making sure that we’re accommodating bikes when we do that.’”

Originally, the Streetscape Master Plan was considering more of Vine Street as well as Main Street for floating bike lanes, but for now this section on Vine will be the only place it exists, with the ability to expand if future needs require it. The city also has the flexibility to change the traffic pattern if needed during home basketball games at Rupp Arena or other large events downtown.

One of the things that should be very helpful to drivers and cyclists alike is the overhead signage that will be lit for the parking lane and the floating bike lane – similar to the way overhead signs work on Nicholasville Road during rush hour.

Gleason mentioned that when the floating bike lane design was implemented in San Francisco they didn’t do any experimentation or public education – they just did it, and people were easily able to figure it out because it follows all the basic rules of riding on the road.

But the city isn’t taking anything for granted or taking an ‘our way or the highway approach’ to the plan – in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“We welcome feedback. If people feel like there are things that need to be adjusted, changed, improved, or if it just needs to come out because it’s dangerous – they need to speak up and let us know what’s happening,” Gleason said. There will be a formal study of the design immediately after it opens with some of the members of the Mayor’s Bike Task Force and traffic engineers. They will be going out and counting bikes, counting cars, tracking any collisions and reviewing that data to make sure there wasn’t any design flaw.

“If it doesn’t work, we’ll take it out. If something is amiss, if we see any kind of collision history that indicates something that is unsafe, we’ll pull the design out,” Gleason affirmed. Let’s hope everyone makes the adjustment without any problems – Lexington and the people who travel the streets need to keep taking positive steps forward.

Get on noclexington.com to share your feedback on the floating bike lanes – or email the Captain at ShareTheRoadLex@gmail.com with any concerns you have as a pedestrian, cyclist or motorist. Captain Comannokers over and out.